Out of the Box » Governor Tim Kainehttp://www.virginiamemory.com/blogs/out_of_the_box
Notes from the Archives at The Library of VirginiaWed, 07 Dec 2016 12:48:31 +0000en-UShourly1http://wordpress.org/?v=3.8.1Library Makes New Batch of Emails from Governor Timothy M. Kaine Administration Available Onlinehttp://www.virginiamemory.com/blogs/out_of_the_box/2016/11/30/library-makes-new-batch-of-emails-from-governor-timothy-m-kaine-administration-available-online-2/
http://www.virginiamemory.com/blogs/out_of_the_box/2016/11/30/library-makes-new-batch-of-emails-from-governor-timothy-m-kaine-administration-available-online-2/#commentsWed, 30 Nov 2016 17:13:33 +0000http://www.virginiamemory.com/blogs/out_of_the_box/?p=9435
The Library of Virginia is pleased to announce the release of 10,441 emails from the administration of Governor Timothy M. Kaine (2006-2010). This latest batch comprises emails from individuals in the Office of the Senior Advisor to the Governor for Workforce. Included are the email boxes of Daniel LeBlanc, Gail Robinson, Brian Davis, Marietta Salyer, Beatrice Young, Sarah Abubaker, and Patrick Callahan. Since January 2014, the Library has made 156,188 emails from the Kaine administration freely available online to the public.

The primary responsibility of the Office of the Senior Advisor to the Governor for Workforce was the development and implementation of the Commonwealth’s first ever Strategic Plan for Workforce Development. The office also worked across secretariats to achieve consensus on a State Partner Memorandum of Understanding for Comprehensive One Stop Centers, a landmark directive for workforce service delivery in the Commonwealth signed in March 2008. This document clearly delineates the specific requirements of state agencies and programs towards the creation and support of a workforce development system that operates effectively in a one stop environment with a primary focus on serving citizens and employers in an efficient manner. For the complete picture, you will need to jump into the collection and start digging. The archived web site and Cabinet Weekly Reports of the Office of the Senior Advisor provide additional information on its activities.… read more »

The primary responsibility of the Office of the Senior Advisor to the Governor for Workforce was the development and implementation of the Commonwealth’s first ever Strategic Plan for Workforce Development. The office also worked across secretariats to achieve consensus on a State Partner Memorandum of Understanding for Comprehensive One Stop Centers, a landmark directive for workforce service delivery in the Commonwealth signed in March 2008. This document clearly delineates the specific requirements of state agencies and programs towards the creation and support of a workforce development system that operates effectively in a one stop environment with a primary focus on serving citizens and employers in an efficient manner. For the complete picture, you will need to jump into the collection and start digging. The archived web site and Cabinet Weekly Reports of the Office of the Senior Advisor provide additional information on its activities.

The Library of Virginia is pleased to announce a new digital collection: Governor Tim Kaine’s YouTube Channel Videos, 2008-2010. Accessible as a playlist from the Library’s YouTube channel, this collection consists of 63 videos uploaded by the Kaine administration for events occurring between March 2008 and January 2010. The Kaine administration created a dedicated YouTube channel for the Office of the Governor in March 2008. Included are videos of news conferences, transportation town hall meetings, cabinet day events, the 2008 dedication of the Virginia Civil Rights Memorial, Governor Kaine’s statement on granting clemency to the Norfolk Four, and Governor Kaine’s 2009 State of the Commonwealth address.

The Kaine YouTube Channel Video collection is the latest release of records from Virginia’s 70th governor. Click here for a comprehensive list of records from the Kaine administration open to researchers.

The Library of Virginia is pleased to announce a new digital collection: Governor Tim Kaine’s YouTube Channel Videos, 2008-2010. Accessible as a playlist from the Library’s YouTube channel, this collection consists of 63 videos uploaded by the Kaine administration for events occurring between March 2008 and January 2010. The Kaine administration created a dedicated YouTube channel for the Office of the Governor in March 2008. Included are videos of news conferences, transportation town hall meetings, cabinet day events, the 2008 dedication of the Virginia Civil Rights Memorial, Governor Kaine’s statement on granting clemency to the Norfolk Four, and Governor Kaine’s 2009 State of the Commonwealth address.

The Kaine YouTube Channel Video collection is the latest release of records from Virginia’s 70th governor. Click here for a comprehensive list of records from the Kaine administration open to researchers.

-Roger Christman, LVA Senior State Records Archivist

]]>http://www.virginiamemory.com/blogs/out_of_the_box/2016/10/26/57-channels-and-nothin-on-governor-tim-kaines-youtube-channel-videos-released/feed/0Man at the Top: The Kaine Administration Cabinet Week Reports Collectionhttp://www.virginiamemory.com/blogs/out_of_the_box/2016/09/12/man-at-the-top-the-kaine-administration-cabinet-week-reports-collection/
http://www.virginiamemory.com/blogs/out_of_the_box/2016/09/12/man-at-the-top-the-kaine-administration-cabinet-week-reports-collection/#commentsMon, 12 Sep 2016 12:37:27 +0000http://www.virginiamemory.com/blogs/out_of_the_box/?p=9329
The Library of Virginia is pleased to announce a new digital collection: the Kaine Administration Cabinet Weekly Reports Collection (2006-2009). Accessible through Digitool (and linked to from the “Related Content” section of the Kaine Email Project @ LVA page), this collection consists of weekly reports submitted to Governor Tim Kaine by the governor’s cabinet members, advisors, policy, press, and constituent services offices, and the Virginia Liaison Office. Reports were submitted each Thursday and placed in a binder for the governor that he took with him at the end of the day on Friday. While the level of detail varies, each report contains information on legislation, Governor’s initiatives and special projects, agency matters and operations, events and agency visits, audits or investigations, stakeholder issues, and pending decisions. This collection, which is full-text searchable, provides a weekly account of the issues and policy decisions of the Kaine Administration.

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The Library of Virginia is pleased to announce a new digital collection: the Kaine Administration Cabinet Weekly Reports Collection (2006-2009). Accessible through Digitool (and linked to from the “Related Content” section of the Kaine Email Project @ LVA page), this collection consists of weekly reports submitted to Governor Tim Kaine by the governor’s cabinet members, advisors, policy, press, and constituent services offices, and the Virginia Liaison Office. Reports were submitted each Thursday and placed in a binder for the governor that he took with him at the end of the day on Friday. While the level of detail varies, each report contains information on legislation, Governor’s initiatives and special projects, agency matters and operations, events and agency visits, audits or investigations, stakeholder issues, and pending decisions. This collection, which is full-text searchable, provides a weekly account of the issues and policy decisions of the Kaine Administration.

Governor Kaine often wrote comments on the reports and made requests for additional information. For example, one of Governor Kaine’s signature issues was conserving 400,000 acres of land by the end of his term in 2010.Kaine often asked for updates on this goal. The dedication of the 59th Natural Area Preserve (NAP) at Wintergreen, contained in the 30 July 2009 Secretary of Natural Resources report, prompted Kaine to ask “How many Natural Area Preserves have we added during my term?” The answer in the following week’s report (13 NAPs) triggered this note from Kaine to Bryant and Communications Director Lynda Tran:

“Take Note

6 New state forests

2 New state parks

13 New Natural Area Preserves and

Preserved all or parts of 23 Civil War Battlefields

all as part of our 400,000 acre goal”

Kaine also used the reports to acknowledge good work done by his administration. On the 11 June 2009 Virginia Liaison Office report, Kaine wrote: “You guys consistently do great reports!” A compliment from MSNBCs Chuck Todd about the Virginia State Board of Elections inspired Kaine to write: “Let’s do a thank you note to the board.” Kaine’s sense of humor occasionally shines through as well. Next to a report from the Department of Taxation about how the department used the 2009 Super Bowl (won by the Pittsburgh Steelers) to collect delinquent taxes from a Richmond business, Kaine wrote: “Nice Tax v. Stealers.” Another report listed items containing controlled substances confiscated at a Phish concert in Hampton: “brownies, goo balls, chocolates, gummy bears, fruity pebble treats, along with a variety of pills, powders, suspected LSD,” and marijuana. Kaine circled “fruity pebble treats” and wrote: “Oh no – Not fruity pebble treats!”

Governor Mark Warner (2002-2006) was the first governor to use weekly reports. All subsequent governors (Kaine and Bob McDonnell) have utilized them as well. Governor Warner’s reports have not been scanned but paper copies are available to researchers in the Library’s Archives Room which is open Monday through Saturday from 9:00 am to 4:30 pm. Governor Bob McDonnell’s weekly reports have not been processed and are closed to researchers.

-Roger Christman, LVA Senior State Records Archivist

]]>http://www.virginiamemory.com/blogs/out_of_the_box/2016/09/12/man-at-the-top-the-kaine-administration-cabinet-week-reports-collection/feed/0All I’m Thinkin’ About….Tim Kaine Records at the Library of Virginiahttp://www.virginiamemory.com/blogs/out_of_the_box/2016/07/27/all-im-thinkin-about-tim-kaine-records-at-the-library-of-virginia/
http://www.virginiamemory.com/blogs/out_of_the_box/2016/07/27/all-im-thinkin-about-tim-kaine-records-at-the-library-of-virginia/#commentsWed, 27 Jul 2016 12:00:01 +0000http://www.virginiamemory.com/blogs/out_of_the_box/?p=9273
Long time readers of Out of the Boxare already familiar with the Kaine Email Project @ LVA. Hillary Clinton’s selection of Virginia Senator Tim Kaine as her running mate has brought national attention to our little project. Recent stories in Politico, Washington Post and the New York Times have all made use of the Kaine email collection. With this new interest in Kaine, we thought it would be a good time to spotlight the Library’s collection about Kaine and how to access them.

The Kaine Email Project provides online access to the email records from the administration of Governor Timothy M. Kaine, Virginia’s 70th governor (2006-2010). We are processing and releasing these records in batches. To date, we have released over 145,000 emails from 66 Kaine staff members. The “By the Numbers” document shows what we are currently working on. New releases will be announced on this blog and via the Library’s Twitter and Facebook pages. Before jumping in to the collection, we strongly suggest you read the collection finding aid and the tip sheets we created to help users search the collection.

The web archive of the Administration of Governor Tim Kaine (2006-2010) contains archived versions of Web sites for the Governor’s Office, … read more »

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Long time readers of Out of the Boxare already familiar with the Kaine Email Project @ LVA. Hillary Clinton’s selection of Virginia Senator Tim Kaine as her running mate has brought national attention to our little project. Recent stories in Politico, Washington Post and the New York Times have all made use of the Kaine email collection. With this new interest in Kaine, we thought it would be a good time to spotlight the Library’s collection about Kaine and how to access them.

The Kaine Email Project provides online access to the email records from the administration of Governor Timothy M. Kaine, Virginia’s 70th governor (2006-2010). We are processing and releasing these records in batches. To date, we have released over 145,000 emails from 66 Kaine staff members. The “By the Numbers” document shows what we are currently working on. New releases will be announced on this blog and via the Library’s Twitter and Facebook pages. Before jumping in to the collection, we strongly suggest you read the collection finding aid and the tip sheets we created to help users search the collection.

The web archive of the Administration of Governor Tim Kaine (2006-2010) contains archived versions of Web sites for the Governor’s Office, his initiative sites, and the sites of his cabinet secretaries. Also included are the related websites for the First Lady (Anne Holton), as well as the Lt. Governor (Bill Bolling), and Attorney General (Bob McDonnell and William C. Mims), two statewide officials elected in the same cycle as Governor Kaine.

Each Friday, Governor Kaine received weekly reports from his cabinet and other offices of his administration. The level of detail varied for each cabinet officer and items of importance were highlighted by staff for the Governor. Each report contains information on legislation, Governor’s initiatives/special projects, agency matters/operations, events/agency visits, audits/investigations/compliance, stakeholder issues and pending decisions. Governor Kaine wrote handwritten notes and/or marked-up some reports with post-it notes and requested follow up information from the person submitting the report. Those questions and answers are included in these records. The Cabinet Weekly Reports provide a weekly account of the issues and policy decisions of the Kaine Administration. These paper reports have been scanned and will be added to the Library’s digital collections soon.

Accessible as a playlist from the Library’s YouTube channel, this collection consists of 63 videos uploaded by the Kaine administration for events occurring between March 2008 and January 2010. The Kaine administration created a dedicated YouTube channel for the Office of the Governor in March 2008. Included are videos of news conferences, transportation town hall meetings, cabinet day events, the 2008 dedication of the Virginia Civil Rights Memorial, Governor Kaine’s statement on granting clemency to the Norfolk Four, and Governor Kaine’s 2009 State of the Commonwealth address.

All digital collections are open to anyone with an Internet connection.

Records of the Governor Timothy M. Kaine Administration – Paper

The rise of the paperless office has been greatly exaggerated. The Library received over 900 cubic feet of paper records from the Kaine administration. By law, gubernatorial records transferred to the Library “shall be made accessible to the public, once cataloging has been completed.” (Va. Code § 2.2-126) The following collections have been processed and are open to researchers:

Paper records are accessible in the Library’s Archives Room which is open Monday through Saturday from 9:00 am to 4:30 pm. All Archives Room users will need to have a valid Library of Virginia card. Please review the following guidelines before your visit:

]]>http://www.virginiamemory.com/blogs/out_of_the_box/2016/07/27/all-im-thinkin-about-tim-kaine-records-at-the-library-of-virginia/feed/2May the 4th Be With Youhttp://www.virginiamemory.com/blogs/out_of_the_box/2016/05/04/may-the-4th-be-with-you/
http://www.virginiamemory.com/blogs/out_of_the_box/2016/05/04/may-the-4th-be-with-you/#commentsWed, 04 May 2016 13:08:42 +0000http://www.virginiamemory.com/blogs/out_of_the_box/?p=9158Even government officials have to let loose sometimes. Happy Star Wars Day from your Out of the Box editors and the Kaine email project!

]]>Even government officials have to let loose sometimes. Happy Star Wars Day from your Out of the Box editors and the Kaine email project!

]]>http://www.virginiamemory.com/blogs/out_of_the_box/2016/05/04/may-the-4th-be-with-you/feed/0Ten Years Burning Down the Road: Web Archiving at LVAhttp://www.virginiamemory.com/blogs/out_of_the_box/2015/09/23/ten-years-burning-down-the-road-web-archiving-at-lva/
http://www.virginiamemory.com/blogs/out_of_the_box/2015/09/23/ten-years-burning-down-the-road-web-archiving-at-lva/#commentsWed, 23 Sep 2015 12:00:03 +0000http://www.virginiamemory.com/blogs/out_of_the_box/?p=8877
September 2015 marks the ten year anniversary of web archiving at the Library of Virginia. In the fall of 2005, the Library partnered with the Internet Archive for a pilot program using their new web archiving tool, Archive-It (AI). The pilot program ran from September to November 2005 and captured the websites of Governor Mark Warner’s administration, campaign web sites for Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Attorney General, and selected Virginia political blogs. After the successful completion of the pilot program, the Library used funding provided by Congress for the Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) to subscribe to Archive-It. Over the past ten years, the Library has created 21 collections containing over 3000 URLS and has crawled over 89 million documents and 5.1 terabytes of data. Following the Library’s web archiving collection guidelines, the Virginia Web Archive includes the web content of Virginia State Government and Virginia’s political leaders.

This collection preserves the web sites that document Virginia’s November 2005 state-wide election. Included are former Governor Mark Warner’s website, the first lady’s website, the Virginia Democratic and Republican Party websites, as well as sites for the candidates for the offices of Governor, Lieutenant Governor and Attorney General. Also included are blogs related to the election, websites of cabinet secretaries, and sites for Warner

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September 2015 marks the ten year anniversary of web archiving at the Library of Virginia. In the fall of 2005, the Library partnered with the Internet Archive for a pilot program using their new web archiving tool, Archive-It (AI). The pilot program ran from September to November 2005 and captured the websites of Governor Mark Warner’s administration, campaign web sites for Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Attorney General, and selected Virginia political blogs. After the successful completion of the pilot program, the Library used funding provided by Congress for the Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) to subscribe to Archive-It. Over the past ten years, the Library has created 21 collections containing over 3000 URLS and has crawled over 89 million documents and 5.1 terabytes of data. Following the Library’s web archiving collection guidelines, the Virginia Web Archive includes the web content of Virginia State Government and Virginia’s political leaders.

This collection preserves the web sites that document Virginia’s November 2005 state-wide election. Included are former Governor Mark Warner’s website, the first lady’s website, the Virginia Democratic and Republican Party websites, as well as sites for the candidates for the offices of Governor, Lieutenant Governor and Attorney General. Also included are blogs related to the election, websites of cabinet secretaries, and sites for Warner Administration initiatives.

The web archive of the Administration of Governor Tim Kaine (2006-2010)contains archived versions of web sites for the Governor’s Office, his initiative sites, and the sites of his cabinet secretaries. Also included are the related sites for the First Lady (Anne Holton), as well as the Lieutenant Governor (Bill Bolling), and Attorney General (Bob McDonnell and William C. Mims), two statewide officials elected in the same cycle as Governor Kaine.

This collection preserves the websites that document Virginia’s 2009 statewide and Virginia House of Delegates elections (primary and general). All three statewide offices (Governor, Lieutenant Governor, and Attorney General) as well as all 100 members of the Virginia House of Delegates were up for election in 2009. Included are campaign websites for candidates for Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Attorney General and the House of Delegates, official sites for Virginia’s Congressional delegation, the Virginia Democratic and Republican Party websites, as well as websites for members of the Virginia General Assembly.

This collection preserves the web sites that document the 2010-2014 administration of Virginia’s 71st governor, Bob McDonnell. Included in the collection are the web sites for the governor, his cabinet secretaries and issues and initiatives. Also included are the web sites of the First Lady (Maureen McDonnell), Lieutenant Governor (Bill Bolling), and Attorney General (Ken Cuccinelli).

Archiving websites is far from perfect. Staff at the Internet Archive frequently say that the “web is a mess,” and so is web archiving. Due to the evolving nature of web sites and web crawlers, not all content can be easily captured. Social media sites (YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, etc.) are particularly challenging. Five years ago, it was extremely time consuming to try archive these pages. Today, improvements in IAs web crawler make capturing these pages much easier. However, the web is constantly changing; who knows what new web archiving challenges the next ten years will bring?

]]>http://www.virginiamemory.com/blogs/out_of_the_box/2015/09/23/ten-years-burning-down-the-road-web-archiving-at-lva/feed/0Kaine Email Project @LVA: 10th Anniversary of Hurricane Katrinahttp://www.virginiamemory.com/blogs/out_of_the_box/2015/08/27/kaine-email-project-lva-10th-anniversary-of-hurricane-katrina/
http://www.virginiamemory.com/blogs/out_of_the_box/2015/08/27/kaine-email-project-lva-10th-anniversary-of-hurricane-katrina/#commentsThu, 27 Aug 2015 12:30:14 +0000http://www.virginiamemory.com/blogs/out_of_the_box/?p=8767This is the tenth in a series of posts spotlighting recently released email from Governor Tim Kaine’s administration. These posts are not meant to be comprehensive but to encourage further exploration in the Kaine administration records (electronic and paper).

This week marks the tenth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina making landfall in Louisiana. The costliest natural disaster in the history of the United States, Katrina caused widespread damage from Texas to Florida. The storm surge breached the levee system surrounding New Orleans, flooding most of the city and the surrounding parishes. The Kaine email collection would be the last place one would expect to find records related to the aftermath of the destruction in Louisiana, given that Tim Kaine was not governor in 2005. However, the Kaine email collection includes the email of William H. Leighty, who served as chief of staff to Governor Mark Warner (2002-2006) and held the same position under Governor Kaine (2006-2007). On 1 September 2005, Governor Warner dispatched Leighty and Policy Aide Ryan Childress to Louisiana for two weeks to coordinate state-to-state assistance and supplementing the relief operations of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). Leighty’s email dispatches document their travel to Louisiana, Leighty’s responsibilities, clashes with the federal government, and their work assisting fire fighters.

Leighty traveled to Baton Rouge at the suggestion of Governor Warner and at … read more »

This week marks the tenth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina making landfall in Louisiana. The costliest natural disaster in the history of the United States, Katrina caused widespread damage from Texas to Florida. The storm surge breached the levee system surrounding New Orleans, flooding most of the city and the surrounding parishes. The Kaine email collection would be the last place one would expect to find records related to the aftermath of the destruction in Louisiana, given that Tim Kaine was not governor in 2005. However, the Kaine email collection includes the email of William H. Leighty, who served as chief of staff to Governor Mark Warner (2002-2006) and held the same position under Governor Kaine (2006-2007). On 1 September 2005, Governor Warner dispatched Leighty and Policy Aide Ryan Childress to Louisiana for two weeks to coordinate state-to-state assistance and supplementing the relief operations of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). Leighty’s email dispatches document their travel to Louisiana, Leighty’s responsibilities, clashes with the federal government, and their work assisting fire fighters.

“Since I have gone through a number of disasters that all combined do not equal what you are experiencing, my thoughts and prayers and with you and the Governor. But I have been through enough to know what needs to be done. I also know that saying let us know if we can help, just doesn’t cut it. You are busy with responding and can’t think about next week….if you need someone there to think about the next week while you think about today, I can be there.”

Kopplin replied an hour later: “One of the best messages I have gotten all day.” Leighty and Childress left for Baton Rouge the next day.

During the 17 hour drive, Leighty emailed travel updates from his Blackberry to several members of the administration. Gas lines were plentiful as they drove through Mississippi. “Looking for gas,” Leighty reported, “Lines a half to a mile long. Running out before lines finish. National Guard taking over stations for law enforcement us[e] only. My smooth talking hasn’t helped yet.” In Crystal City, National Guard troops were at “every station directing traffic. Every fourth or fifth station has been taken over by law enforcement for their vehicles. Ryan and I have been wonderi[ng] why we haven’t seen an enforcement presence. They are all guarding the stations!” Getting low on fuel, Leighty and Childress contacted the Virginia Department of Transportation, who worked with their counterparts in Mississippi to arrange a quick gas stop at the McComb District Headquarters. Time on task to fuel, water and a real pit stop would have put [NASCAR driver] Elliott Sadler to shame (especially this season). Ryan used his native Virginia accent to interpret.” Leighty’s final update came from Kentwood, Louisiana. “We are in Louisiana and passing through Brittney Spear’s hometown. How do I know these things?”

Leighty began work immediately upon his arrival in Baton Rouge, pulling an all-nighter in the Louisiana Emergency Operations Center (EOC). FEMA and the administration of President George W. Bush were pressuring Governor Blanco to federalize the evacuation of New Orleans by placing the National Guard under federal control. Governor Blanco resisted; under the Posse Comitatus Act, federalizing the National Guard would restrict their use as domestic law enforcement personnel. Leighty listened to several phone calls Kopplin had about this with White House Chief of Staff Andy Card and the Chief of the National Guard Bureau, LTG H. Steven Blum. Leighty described the situation. “This is surreal,” he wrote to Governor Warner’s Communications Director Ellen Qualls in the early hours of 3 September. “Andy Card and General Blum on the phone arguing to federalize this. They can not [sic] articulate why it needs to be done or what it adds by doing it. Andy Kopplin is arguing with Andy Card. It is clear they [White House] only want to do this to wipe the slate clean and start getting credit for improvement.” Blanco’s aides agreed. “After long discussions,” Leighty wrote a few hours later, “we determined the real reason for the request for a change in leadership is now that things are turning around Bush needs the credit.” Blanco refused to federalize the guard.

Governor Blanco designated Leighty and Childress (“Team Leighty”) to be the “go to” guys for firefighter support. One of their main tasks was “working our butts off fighting FEMA paperwork to create a compound” in Algiers for about 1,100 firefighters. The next battle with FEMA: getting toilets for the firemen. Leighty gave a “toilet update” on 8 September that epitomized the dysfunction of the federal response.

“The toilets and showers are here in New Orleans. Apparently they have been for several days. The hang up was that FEMA sent the wrong kind of trucks. But when the contractor with the trucks reported his arrival at the airport the task was closed out. The trucks left and the toilet task was reported as complete, so when the firefighters asked for follow up FEMA thought it was an additional order and cancelled the delivery. So we went to that miracle man Lieutenant Fudge for help. Fudge said the hell with FEMA, and he has his guard trucks going to pick up and deliver the toilets and showers. This is the closest that Ryan and I have gotten to swinging at someone. When Ryan went down to the site the other day, he saw the complex and knew that at least 400 firefighters were sharing just 2 showers, and was upset with the FEMA rep who broke the news to us. Ryan got his game face on and I had to take him outside for a break. People in the EOC were putting money on the confrontation…and it was all on Ryan. He could have taken him, and, as they say down here, I gar-on-tee it.”

Leighty also clashed directly with FEMA. FEMA agreed to transport 320 New York fire fighters to Louisiana then broke their promise. Upon learning this at 1:30 am on 5 September, Leighty stormed into FEMA operations demanding an explanation. They didn’t have one, just saying that there weren’t any planes. Leighty called the Department of Homeland Security’s Operations center and demanded to speak to Secretary Michael Chertoff. Josh Fuller, Chertoff’s chief of staff, returned the call and promised to see what he could do. FEMA chartered two planes to transport the New York firefighters that morning.

Leighty and Childress left Louisiana on 14 September with mixed emotions. In a lengthy email to colleagues in Virginia that evening, Leighty tried to summarize their experience.

“It is difficult to explain how two weeks of our lives have passed so quickly. Nor is it possible to explain the utter devastation we have seen here seen here. Devastation to lives, property and security. There are many who have lost so much. Generations of family heirlooms. Generations of cherished history. Generations of established social connections.

It is day 15 of the event. There are still bodies in the streets. Water in the homes. Fires burning in the neighborhoods. Hospitals flying patients out of state for lack of staff. No way to turn the water and sewer back on because the[y] can not [sic] locate the worke[r]s or the plans to turn the valves on. No way to turn the gas off because the valves are under water.

In the wee hours that we worked, we had many strange conversations. The young guardsman just back from overseas deployments would ask questions. Sir, do you think I still have to make my car payment if I no longer know where my car is? Sir, do you think I have to still pay my car insurance? Do I have to make a mortgage payment if the house will never be lived in again? Keep in mind these young men and women were the ones helping us, as their own needs were held in abeyance.”

In a separate email, Leighty praised Childress. I am awfully proud of Ryan,” he wrote. “At 24 he is making a contribution that may very well make anything else he does in his life pale in comparison.” Childress made critical decisions while under tremendous pressure while multi-tasking various key tasks. “As a Marine,” Leighty concluded, I reserve this compliment to a very few: I would trust this man to serve next to me in combat – because I have…”

]]>http://www.virginiamemory.com/blogs/out_of_the_box/2015/08/27/kaine-email-project-lva-10th-anniversary-of-hurricane-katrina/feed/2Hampton Roads Group Features Kaine Emails in Open Government “Hack-a-Thon”http://www.virginiamemory.com/blogs/out_of_the_box/2015/07/08/hampton-roads-group-features-kaine-emails-in-open-government-hack-a-thon/
http://www.virginiamemory.com/blogs/out_of_the_box/2015/07/08/hampton-roads-group-features-kaine-emails-in-open-government-hack-a-thon/#commentsWed, 08 Jul 2015 12:00:39 +0000http://www.virginiamemory.com/blogs/out_of_the_box/?p=8665Editor’s Note: This article first appeared in the July 2015 Library of Virginia Newsletter.

One of the Library of Virginia’s newest online collections was recently hacked, and we could not be more excited. The Kaine Email Project has caught the attention of a group of civic hackers called Code for Hampton Roads. As the local chapter of the Code for America Brigade, Code for Hampton Roads provides opportunities for people to marry technological skills with a desire to foster open government and improve communities through open-source web solutions. The group’s recent projects include web apps for finding local restaurants’ health inspection results and for searching all of Virginia’s civil court records from a single search page.

In the case of the Kaine Email Project, on 6 June 2015, hackers got a chance to tackle this massive data set (currently composed of more than 130,000 processed records) as part of the third annual National Day of Civic Hacking. The hackers’ goal was to devise new entry points for researching the collection, such as visualizations of topic frequency in Kaine administration email discussions or maps showing which correspondents interacted with each other the most. An immediate output of the hack-a-thon was a “word cloud” of the most common terms used in the set of emails currently available for public viewing. A word-cloud generator … read more »

One of the Library of Virginia’s newest online collections was recently hacked, and we could not be more excited. The Kaine Email Project has caught the attention of a group of civic hackers called Code for Hampton Roads. As the local chapter of the Code for America Brigade, Code for Hampton Roads provides opportunities for people to marry technological skills with a desire to foster open government and improve communities through open-source web solutions. The group’s recent projects include web apps for finding local restaurants’ health inspection results and for searching all of Virginia’s civil court records from a single search page.

In the case of the Kaine Email Project, on 6 June 2015, hackers got a chance to tackle this massive data set (currently composed of more than 130,000 processed records) as part of the third annual National Day of Civic Hacking. The hackers’ goal was to devise new entry points for researching the collection, such as visualizations of topic frequency in Kaine administration email discussions or maps showing which correspondents interacted with each other the most. An immediate output of the hack-a-thon was a “word cloud” of the most common terms used in the set of emails currently available for public viewing. A word-cloud generator creates a free-form collage of words from a piece of text or from text data, giving greater prominence to words that appear most often. In this case, the words “budget,” “governor,” “meeting,” and “update” were among the largest words. The hackers also began developing network maps to show communication channels within the administration. They hope to refine their preliminary maps to show communication channels over time, as well as to highlight communication networks among people within the Kaine administration and with other government agencies or media outlets.

As a bonus, one of the participants in the hack-a-thon was able to compress the Kaine email data set provided by the Library of Virginia, thus reducing its size by nearly 70 gigabytes and making it much easier to distribute to future hackers. We hope that this is only the beginning of the public’s innovative engagement with the Kaine Email Project and look forward to sharing more results as the hackers continue their work.

]]>http://www.virginiamemory.com/blogs/out_of_the_box/2015/07/08/hampton-roads-group-features-kaine-emails-in-open-government-hack-a-thon/feed/0Kaine Email Project @LVA: Oliver Hillhttp://www.virginiamemory.com/blogs/out_of_the_box/2015/06/22/kaine-email-project-lva-oliver-hill/
http://www.virginiamemory.com/blogs/out_of_the_box/2015/06/22/kaine-email-project-lva-oliver-hill/#commentsMon, 22 Jun 2015 12:00:57 +0000http://www.virginiamemory.com/blogs/out_of_the_box/?p=8634This is the ninth in a series of posts spotlighting recently released email from Governor Tim Kaine’s administration. These posts are not meant to be comprehensive but to encourage further exploration in the Kaine administration records (electronic and paper).

On Tuesday, 23 June, a portrait on loan from the University of Richmond of civil rights activist and attorney Oliver Hill (1907-2007) will be unveiled at the Virginia Executive Mansion. Larissa Smith Ferguson wrote in the Encyclopedia Virginia that as the lead attorney for the Virginia State Conference of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) “Hill and his colleagues filed more legal challenges to segregation than any other lawyers in the South and successfully undermined segregation and discrimination in all walks of southern life.” The mansion was also the location of a more somber event during Governor Tim Kaine’s administration (2006-2010): Hill’s viewing was held there on 11 August 2007. His funeral took place the next day at the Greater Richmond Convention Center. The Kaine email collection tells the story of these events.

Oliver Hill was a hero and inspiration to Tim Kaine. He first learned about Hill while attending the University of Missouri where he read Richard Kluger’s Simple Justice, a history of desegregation. “The example of Mr. Hill and the other courageous lawyers of the era,” Kaine wrote … read more »

On Tuesday, 23 June, a portrait on loan from the University of Richmond of civil rights activist and attorney Oliver Hill (1907-2007) will be unveiled at the Virginia Executive Mansion. Larissa Smith Ferguson wrote in the Encyclopedia Virginia that as the lead attorney for the Virginia State Conference of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) “Hill and his colleagues filed more legal challenges to segregation than any other lawyers in the South and successfully undermined segregation and discrimination in all walks of southern life.” The mansion was also the location of a more somber event during Governor Tim Kaine’s administration (2006-2010): Hill’s viewing was held there on 11 August 2007. His funeral took place the next day at the Greater Richmond Convention Center. The Kaine email collection tells the story of these events.

Oliver Hill was a hero and inspiration to Tim Kaine. He first learned about Hill while attending the University of Missouri where he read Richard Kluger’s Simple Justice, a history of desegregation. “The example of Mr. Hill and the other courageous lawyers of the era,” Kaine wrote in an August 2007 op-ed in the Richmond Times-Dispatch, “became a powerful influence on my life. I decided to go to law school and become a civil rights lawyer.” After Kaine moved to Richmond in 1984, he “came to know Oliver Hill not just as a hero in books, but as a flesh and blood person. That has been one of the great joys of my life.” Hill was also a confidant of Kaine’s father-in-law, former Virginia Governor Linwood Holton (1970-1974).

Governor Kaine was on vacation with his family (and the Holtons) when Chief of Staff Wayne Turnage emailed him on Sunday 5 August 2007 at 12:13 P.M. that Hill had died in Richmond. Within an hour, Press Secretary Kevin Hall drafted a statement on Hill’s passing for the governor’s approval. Kaine made a few minor edits and rewrote the final paragraph. “I should mention that this news has a big impact on the Holton family, who are all with me on vacation,” Kaine emailed Turnage and Communication Director Delacey Skinner. “Linwood and Oliver were dear friends because of their work together in the desegregation of Virginia schools. Anne’s brother Dwight named his oldest son Terrence Oliver Holton in honor of Mr. Hill.”

Kaine was scheduled to return from vacation on the following Saturday. Kaine asked Turnage to keep him informed of funeral arrangements in case he decided to cut his vacation short and attend. Turnage emailed Kaine at 4:11 P.M. to ask if he should speak to the family “about the possibility of having the remains of oliver hill [sic] lay in-state at the mansion[?]” Kaine agreed and the Hill family accepted the offer on 6 August. Hill would lay in-state on Saturday, 11 August with the funeral the next day. “I will talk to you later,” Kaine emailed Turnage on 6 August at 8:19 A.M., “about whether we adjust our plans to possibly fly home Friday instead of making the long drive on Saturday.” Kaine quickly decided to return early to attend the funeral.

On 6 August the Richmond Times-Dispatch asked Kaine if he would write an op-ed piece celebrating the life of Oliver Hill. The next day, the Hill family asked Kaine if he “would consider delivering the eulogy rather than make a few remarks.” Kaine said yes to both. He completed the op-ed on Thursday, 9 August and it was published 12 August. Kaine began writing the eulogy on Saturday, 11 August and finished it the next morning.

In his eulogy, Kaine focused on what Hill meant to Virginia and the nation. He concluded with this observation and challenge to us all:

Oliver Hill reminded Virginians of something dear to all Virginians. “All men are created equal.” This wasn’t new. It flows directly from “love thy neighbor as thyself.” It was written into the Declaration of Independence by the most famous of all Virginians, Thomas Jefferson. Every public official who ever voted for a discriminatory law, every judge who ever ruled that discrimination was acceptable, virtually every citizen who supported segregation knew from their earliest days of schooling that our country was “dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.” But, America had to be reminded to live that way. Oliver Hill reminded us.

I believe that was the genius of Oliver Hill. He was a creative thinker—if you read his book “The Big Bang” and wrestle with his concepts of “progressive evolution” and “utopian societies” you will see that his mind was not stuck in the past. But, he also knew that, while there are new thoughts, ideas and challenges—there are also timeless values, values that people understand at some level, and the way to get to a brighter future was to tap into those timeless values with confidence that people would come to realize that there is a better way to live. He never stopped doing this.

So, Mr. Hill’s life reminds us to ask some basic and difficult questions. Do we love our neighbors as ourselves? Do we show mercy to those in need? In this world, in this nation, in this city, in this room—there are people who need and deserve our love. Will we live that way?

Do we really believe that “all” are created equal? Regardless of race or religion or nationality or sex or orientation or income? We say we believe it. Our Commonwealth and nation claim to be based on it. Will we live that way?

Mr. Hill brought Virginia into the future by reminding us of old and timeless wisdom. He accomplished more than anyone in the last century in this Commonwealth, but his work isn’t done. His life stands here as a shining example, but—appropriate to the man—his life also serves as a loving challenge.

The lead project team consists of Roger Christman, senior state records archivist; Susan Gray Page, digital archives coordinator; and Kathy Jordan, digital initiatives and web services manager. Providing logistics and support to the project were Ben Bromley, state records archivist; Rebecca Morgan, digital collections systems engineer; Paige Neal, state records archivist; Jason Roma, web developer; and Anita Vannucci, former records and information management coordinator. This outstanding team not only won the award, but their nomination packet was deemed so professionally put together that the CoSA Board hopes it will serve as a model for other states to emulate in the future.

About the Council of State Archivists’ Awards Program:

The Council’s Awards Program was expanded in 2013 to highlight outstanding people and projects in the nation’s state archives. Awards are presented at CoSA’s annual meeting each summer. CoSA is deeply committed to the positive impact state and territory archives make toward documenting government, preserving history and securing rights. CoSA’s efforts to advance and promote this impact are critical elements of its work.

For more information on CoSA and the Awards Program, please visit their web page.